The Loudoun Hounds strike a deal for a new baseball stadium

One Loudoun, a massive, mixed-use project under construction in Loudoun County, will be the new home for the Loudoun Hounds, a minor-league baseball based in Ashburn.
One Loudoun Holdings LLC, a joint venture of Miller & Smith and North American Sekisui House (NASH) LLC, announced Monday that it had reached a deal with the owners of the Atlantic League Hounds for the construction of a new ballpark that would hold up to 10,000 fans and 5,500 fixed seats.

“We are thrilled to have reached an agreement with the Loudoun Hounds. One Loudoun is the ideal location for this sports and entertainment venue, and we are proud to be
working with Bob Farren to make his vision for a new ballpark in Loudoun County a reality,” said Bill May, vice president of Miller and Smith.

Farren, president of VIP Sports & Entertainment, the Hounds’ parent company, said in a statement that “This is an exciting time for HoundsNation and the entire community. It is something we have been working on for over a decade, and the first pitch is clearly in sight. When complete, the new ballpark will be the premier sports and entertainment destination in Loudoun County and across Northern Virginia.”

The Washington Post reported Monday that VIP is close to getting the rights to a professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League, and that the stadium could host both baseball and soccer games at its location near the intersection of Route 7 and the Loudoun County Parkway in Ashburn.

Originally, the Hounds were expected to build stadium at Kincora Village, another development in Loudoun County.Organizers said the ballpark will be designed as the centerpiece of One Loudoun and will host at least 72 baseball games per year as well as community events, concerts, festivals and additional sporting events. The project will be built with private funding with no money coming from the county. The stadium would open in 2014.

One Loudoun is a 358-acre, master planned community that will contain more than 1,000 homes, 702,000 square feet of retail ―including restaurants, stores, a movie theater and hotel ― and three million square feet of office space. The project will be surrounded by about 150 acres of public land with miles of walking trails.

The first phase of One Loudoun is a 100-acre downtown area that will include a 34,000-square-foot Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, two office/retail buildings and a city-style plaza. The downtown district is scheduled to open in spring 2013.

One Loudoun Holdings LLC is one of NASH’s consolidated subsidiaries in the U.S.